Stui

A fast, keyboard-driven terminal UI for managing Syncthing — browse folders, track sync states, manage ignore patterns, and control your files, all from the comfort of your terminal.

Features

🚀 Real-Time Sync Monitoring

• Live Status Updates: See sync state changes instantly with visual icons (📄✅ synced, 📁☁️ remote-only, 📄🔄 syncing)
• Ignored File Detection: Distinct icons for ignored files that exist (📄🔇) vs deleted (📄🚫)
• Icon Modes: Choose between emoji or Nerd Fonts icons
• System Dashboard: View device name, uptime, storage usage, and live transfer rates

📁 File & Folder Management

• Breadcrumb Navigation: Multi-pane directory browsing with ancestor highlighting
• Recursive Search: Fast wildcard search (*jeff*, *.txt) with instant filtering as you type
• Out-of-Sync Filter: Press f to show only files that need attention
  • Shows remote files you need to download
  • Shows local changes in receive-only folders (added/deleted/modified files)
  • Works recursively across entire folder hierarchy
• Update History: View recent file changes with timestamps (lazy-loaded pagination) — press Enter to jump directly to any file's location
• Flexible Sorting: Sort by sync state, name, date, or size
• File Preview Popup: View file details, text content, ANSI art, or images directly in terminal
  • Text files: Scrollable with vim keybindings
  • ANSI art: Auto-detection with CP437 encoding and 80-column wrapping
  • Images: Terminal graphics (Kitty/iTerm2/Sixel/Halfblocks protocols)
• Ignore Management: Add/remove files from .stignore patterns
• Folder Control: Pause/resume sync, change folder type (Send Only/Send & Receive/Receive Only)
• Safe Operations: Confirmation prompts for delete, restore, and other destructive actions

⌨️ Keyboard-First Interface

• Arrow Keys or Vim Mode: Choose your preferred navigation style
• Single-Key Actions: Quick commands for all operations (sort, ignore, delete, search, etc.)
• Context-Aware Help: Smart hotkey legend shows only relevant keys for current view

Installation

From Source

git clone https://github.com/corcoran/stui.git
cd stui
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/stui /usr/local/bin/

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70+ (install via rustup)
• A running Syncthing instance (local or remote)

Configuration

Create a config file at the platform-specific location:

• Linux: ~/.config/stui/config.yaml
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/stui/config.yaml
• Windows: %APPDATA%\stui\config.yaml

api_key: "your-syncthing-api-key"base_url: "http://127.0.0.1:8384"# Optional: Icon display mode ("emoji" or "nerdfont")icon_mode: "nerdfont"# Optional: Command to open files/directories (e.g., xdg-open, code, vim)# Linux: "xdg-open", macOS: "open", Windows: "explorer"open_command: "xdg-open"# Optional: Command to copy to clipboard (receives text via stdin)# Wayland: "wl-copy", X11: "xclip" or "xsel", macOS: "pbcopy", Windows: "clip.exe"clipboard_command: "wl-copy"# Optional: Map container paths to host paths (for Docker setups)path_map:
"/data": "/home/user/syncthing-data""/photos": "/mnt/photos"# Optional: Enable vim keybindings by defaultvim_mode: false# Optional: Image preview settingsimage_preview_enabled: true # Enable/disable image preview (default: true)image_protocol: "auto"# auto|kitty|iterm2|sixel|halfblocks (default: "auto")

Finding Your Syncthing API Key

1. Open Syncthing Web UI (usually http://127.0.0.1:8384)
2. Go to Actions → Settings → General
3. Copy the API Key value

Docker Setup Example

If Syncthing runs in Docker with volume mounts, configure path_map to translate paths:

path_map:
"/data": "/home/user/Sync"# Container path → Host path"/media": "/mnt/external/media"# Multiple mappings supported

This allows stui (running on host) to perform file operations on the correct paths.

Usage

Basic Commands

# Start stui (reads config from ~/.config/stui/config.yaml)
stui
# Enable vim keybindings for this session
stui --vim
# Enable debug logging
stui --debug

Navigation Keys

Standard Navigation:

• ↑ / ↓ — Navigate items
• Enter / → — Preview file (if file) or enter directory (if folder)
• ← / Backspace — Go back to parent directory
• PageUp / PageDown — Scroll by page (hidden feature)
• Home / End — Jump to first/last item (hidden feature)

Vim Keybindings (when enabled):

• h / j / k / l — Navigate left/down/up/right
• gg — Jump to first item
• G — Jump to last item
• Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u — Half-page down/up
• Ctrl-f / Ctrl-b — Full-page down/up

Action Keys

Key	Action	Confirmation
Ctrl-F / /	Search: Enter search mode (recursive wildcard search)	No
f	Filter: Toggle out-of-sync filter (shows remote needed files + local changes)	No
u	View Update History: Show recent file updates for folder with lazy-loading pagination (folder view only). Press Enter on a file to jump to its location.	No
?	Show detailed file info popup (metadata, sync state, preview). Note: Enter on files also opens preview.	No
c	Context-aware: Change folder type (folder view) OR Copy path (breadcrumb view)	Selection menu / No
p	Pause/resume folder (folder view only)	Yes
i	Toggle ignore pattern (add/remove from .stignore)	No
I	Ignore AND delete from disk	No (immediate)
o	Context-aware: Open Syncthing web UI (folder view) OR Open file/directory with configured command (breadcrumb view)	No
d	Delete file/directory from disk	Yes
r	Rescan folder (refresh from disk)	Yes
R	Restore deleted files (revert receive-only folder)	Yes
s	Cycle sort mode (Sync State → A-Z → Timestamp → Size)	No
S	Reverse current sort order	No
t	Toggle info display (Off → Timestamp → Size+Timestamp)	No
q	Quit stui	No

Search Mode Keys (when search is active):

• Type to filter results in real-time
• Enter — Accept search (keep filtering, deactivate input)
• Backspace — Delete character (auto-exits when query becomes empty)
• Esc — Clear search and restore all items

Filter Mode (when out-of-sync filter is active):

• Press f again to toggle filter off and show all files
• Status bar shows "Filter: Remote + Local" (receive-only) or "Filter: Remote" (other folder types)
• Filter persists when navigating into subdirectories

Cache Management

Stui caches data for instant UI performance. Cache locations:

• Linux: ~/.cache/stui/cache.db
• macOS: ~/Library/Caches/stui/cache.db
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\stui\cache\cache.db

To clear cache if you experience issues:

# Linux
rm ~/.cache/stui/cache.db
# macOS
rm ~/Library/Caches/stui/cache.db
# Windows
del %LOCALAPPDATA%\stui\cache\cache.db

Troubleshooting

"Connection refused" error

• Check that Syncthing is running: curl http://127.0.0.1:8384
• Verify base_url in your config matches Syncthing's listen address

API Key errors

• Ensure your API key in config.yaml matches Syncthing's settings
• API key is found in Syncthing Web UI: Actions → Settings → General

Cache issues after update

• Run rm ~/.cache/stui/cache.db to clear stale cache
• Required when database schema changes between versions

Debug logging

• Run with --debug flag to enable verbose logging
• Check /tmp/stui-debug.log for detailed operation traces

Limitations

• No async loading spinners (planned)
• No batch operations for multi-select yet (planned)

What Stui Cannot Do (Yet?)

Stui is designed for monitoring and file-level operations, not initial setup or configuration. You'll still need the Syncthing Web UI for these tasks:

Category	Missing Features (that Web UI CAN do)	Impact
Device Management	Add/remove/edit devices, configure device settings (compression, rate limits, introducer), view device IDs	Cannot set up or manage sync relationships
Folder Setup	Create/delete folders, edit folder settings (path, label, versioning, intervals, pull order), share folders with devices	Cannot configure new sync folders or modify existing folder settings
Versioning	Enable/configure versioning schemes (Simple/Staggered/Trashcan/External), browse version history, restore old versions	No access to file version history or recovery
System Configuration	GUI settings (authentication, theme), connection settings (listen addresses, NAT, UPnP), global bandwidth limits, discovery/relay toggles	Cannot configure Syncthing's network or system behavior
Advanced Ignore Patterns	Direct .stignore editing with complex patterns, pattern validation/help	Limited to adding/removing individual files only
Diagnostics & Monitoring	Syncthing logs, failed items view	Limited troubleshooting capabilities
System Control	Restart/shutdown Syncthing, API key management	Must use command line for system administration

What Stui DOES Better Than Web UI:

• File-level browsing, deletion, and restore operations (Web UI doesn't browse individual files)
• Real-time sync state monitoring with visual indicators
• Fast keyboard-driven navigation and search
• Terminal-native file previews (text, images, ANSI art)

Contributing

Contributions welcome! This project is actively being developed. See PLAN.md for roadmap and CLAUDE.md for architecture details.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Built with:

• Ratatui — Terminal UI framework
• Syncthing — Continuous file synchronization
• Rust — Systems programming language